An unidentified American security official escorts United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (left) to her car upon their arrival at a military base in Rawalpindin yesterday. Rice arrived in Islamabad on Tuesday on a mission to make Pakistan and Afghanistan stop their bickering and work better together to fight resurgent Taliban forces. - REUTERS
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP):
PAKISTAN'S MILITARY government challenged neigh-bouring Afghan-istan yesterday to identify terrorist hideouts that Afghanistan claims exist in Pakistan, and used an audience with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to defend its anti-terror record.
Rice, making back-to-back visits to the quarrelling allies, could do little more than smile thinly while her Pakistani counterpart, Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri, answered Afghan criticisms point by point.
"Our view is that we have two good friends and two fierce fighters in the war on terror," the top U.S. diplomat said yesterday following meetings with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Kasuri.
Musharraf became an unlikely ally of the Bush administration following the September 11, 2001, attacks when he pledged cooperation against terrorists who passed easily between Pakistan and the lawless Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan.
Rice will see Karzai today for talks on that country's political progress and the international military campaign to quell terrorism in the south. That chaotic and often lawless border region is also the source of tension with Pakistan, and the presumed hiding place for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
